After neighbors complained of smells and vermin, the Easton codes department got involved.

They found mold in the basement at 1132 Lehigh St. and rancid food in the cabinets and refrigerator. The smells and mold started to get so bad, one neighbor poured bleach on the adjoining wall.

The owner of 1132 Lehigh St. died last summer, but it took the city months to take action on the property. That’s because the property was in foreclosure and the holding company responsible for property maintenance was difficult to track down, officials said.

Foreclosures can stall city code enforcement officials from doing their job, according to planning Director Becky Bradley.

Lenders foreclosing on the properties write them off, and the properties are often transferred into the hands of management companies. Codes officers can spend six to eight weeks tracking down responsible parties on foreclosures.

“Sometimes it moves between multiple holding companies,” Bradley said. “Those folks could be, quote, unquote, ‘managing’ those properties, but often they aren’t managing them at all.”

Widespread problem

The Lehigh Street property affects three houses in the half-block between Elder and South 12th streets. The home at 1147 Lehigh St. has a “no trespassing” sign posted by the district court in March, and 1126 Lehigh has a sign declaring it unsanitary and unfit for human habitation by order of the Easton Health Bureau, also posted in March.

That property is maintained jointly by a company from Tampa, Fla., and a company from Columbus, Ohio.

Foreclosures and property vacancies affect urban municipalities around the country, Bradley said. In Conyers, Ga., on the outskirts of Atlanta, one in every 189 homes has a foreclosure filing.

“We’re all having the same issues,” Bradley said. “It’s a horrible situation we’re in, and dealing with it is incredibly difficult.”

Easton has a higher foreclosure rate than Pennsylvania's average, according to Realtytrac.com, a website tracking numbers by month and ZIP code. Easton’s foreclosure rate as a percentage of properties is 0.17 percent, higher than the Northampton County rate of 0.1 percent and the state average rate of 0.9 percent. The national rate is 0.14 percent.

Easton calls spike

The past year has seen a spike in the number of calls for complaint inspections received by the codes department, Bradley said. While not every call indicates a vacant property, many do, she said.

In 2011, codes received about 25 to 35 calls of complaints a week, Bradley said. This year, codes inspectors have gone on 75 to 79 calls a week. One week, the department conducted 111 inspections, she said.

Foreclosures and vacant properties account for about a third of all the calls to which the city’s zoning inspectors respond, Bradley said.

Now that the codes department is working with Lender Processing Services Inc., or LPS, the holding company managing 1132 Lehigh St., the city was able to get LPS to spray for insects. Relatives of the homeowner also removed many pieces of furniture.

“They have removed pretty much everything from the property except a dresser, so the offensive items have been removed,” Bradley said.

LPS, based in Jacksonville, Fla., likely will come back after spraying to clean the house again.

“We are working with the mortgage company and the local code enforcement office to resolve any remaining concerns in the quickest possible manner,” said Michelle Kersch, senior vice president of marketing at LPS.

The best thing residents can do is call the department before problems get out of hand, Bradley said.

“If they have a property maintenance issue, please call our office and register that with us,” Bradley said. “The sooner we address real issues, the less severe they become, and the better chance we have of stabilizing ... the situation.”